


Troubled Waters

by Kelly_the_Ferret



Series: Leviathan Depths [13]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, The Mighty Boosh (TV)
Genre: Crowley Was Raphael Before Falling (Good Omens), Multi, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-18 03:34:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21721099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kelly_the_Ferret/pseuds/Kelly_the_Ferret
Summary: While tracking one leviathan in hopes of finding another, Aziraphale and Crowley return to the topic of polyamory. And then our ineffable idiots lose the Ziz, too.
Relationships: Anathema Device/Newton Pulsifer, Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Leviathan Depths [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538272
Comments: 5
Kudos: 8





	Troubled Waters

**Author's Note:**

> The story so far: 
> 
> While on sabbatical, Gabriel has been tasked with finding out why Earth's creatures, including humans, are going mad with aggression. Crowley & Aziraphale have found that God's pet Behemoth, who is supposed to roar each year to prevent this aggression, went missing six months ago at the time of his yearly roar. 
> 
> Crowley enlisted the help of an old friend, Naboo, who sent a team of explorers (Vince & Howard) to track the Behemoth, who is currently somewhere out at sea trying to start a Kraken fight. The team are following a third leviathan (the Ziz), who can sense the Behemoth and lead our team to him.

Late that night, the demon was again sitting in the same chair, now holding the Ziz-sion, while Aziraphale covered wheel duty. Their discourse regarding who between them had "won" the thirteenth century had run dry, and Aziraphale found himself gazing at the sky through the window. With no light pollution, it seemed possible to see whole dimensions of the cosmos which were invisible from the shop's rooftop.

"My love, do you remember your work out there?" he queried softly.

Crowley chuckled and nodded. "Too well. But it felt like I was always being called away to fix something. I was the Archangel Team's specialized healer. God would throw together a half-baked idea, someone would get hurt, and I would have to drop everything and come running."

"And when you asked too many questions, they turned against you?"

Crowley grimaced. "Not at first. But after Lucifer raised Her heckles, everyone became cautious. One by one they stopped talking to me; treated me like I was a liability. Selaphiel almost held out until the end, and then finally Gabriel was the only one left." He spoke softly as he finished, entranced by the milky swirls above.

"I've come to learn that there is more to him than meets the eye," Aziraphale commented.

Crowley snapped back to reality and laughed. "Yeah, who would have guessed you'd organize a book club!"

The angel shot a crooked grin at Crowley. "Absolutely no one! And I have to admit, I can imagine a girl developing feelings for him."

Crowley groaned and covered his head with his hands.

The angel backpedaled "I only thought that I should give you fair warning! I didn't say I _was_ falling for him, but I can see how... feelings _could_ develop."

Crowley sat up straight, looking shocked. "You?!"

The angel tutted and responded, "Well, who did you think that I-- Oh dear, you thought I was pushing--! What was Anathema going on at you about earlier?"

"She thinks I get 'bothered' when he's around or something, now what was that? You... _could_ start feeling something for him?" Crowley queried.

"You seem utterly shocked, my dear," the angel nervously observed. "And yes, you do get 'bothered' whenever he looks your way."

Crowley made a disgusted noise and slouched in his chair.

Aziraphale could not understand why it was so difficult for his beloved to acknowledge what he was clearly feeling. "Why must you fight yourself at every turn?" he pressed.

"Because I'm afraid of mucking up what we have!" Crowley countered before he could stop himself. He shrank further in his chair and would have slipped through the floor if he could.

Aziraphale held a hand out towards his demon. Crowley moved from his chair to lean against the edge of the control panel with his back to the window, and he held the angel's hand.

The demon sighed and calmly added, "Anyway, of course I'm shocked. _You_ fall for someone in a matter of days? The humans had split the atom before you sorted out your feelings for me."

"And you should know that it's different every time." 

Crowley looked alarmed and dropped the hand he held. "Angel, just how many times have you fallen for someone?!"

"Love, it's been a long journey through the years. While I have always held you close in my heart, I also had the odd mad crush." The angel's shy smile returned and he added, "I even had the occasional relationship, as I'm sure you did as well."

Crowley looked like he couldn't decide whether to become gruff or hide his face in embarrassment. "Er... No."

Aziraphale was too shocked to speak. This revelation did not fit with the idea he'd had of his friend's life to this point.

Crowley spoke out of desperation to beat the awkward silence into submission. "Look, I was always caught up in fancying you! Why divide my feelings between more than one subject? That sounds exhausting-"

Aziraphale broke into the demon's rant with, "Dividing!? Dear, when you have feelings of love for one and then begin to develop them for a second, nothing is diminished!"

Crowley's processing unit seemed to seize and he leaned silently.

Aziraphale added, "I've never felt the way I feel for you towards anyone else. And what might develop - in fact, if I'm honest, is at the earliest stage of developing - with Gabriel is completely unique as well! And it doesn't leave you with less." He placed a reassuring hand back into Crowley's.

Crowley slipped into sarcasm, responding, "Must be nice for a being literally made to love everything. I'm pretty sure I'm not built that way."

The angel responded with a sad smile. He turned the demon around to face the stars and put an arm around Crowley’s slender waist.

The demon grumbled and threw an arm around Aziraphale's shoulders. With a sigh, he haltingly asked, "So, what do you plan to do about these… feelings then, angel?"

The boat's pilot squirmed against Crowley's side. "Well, I wouldn't say I feel pressed to _do_ anything at this stage."

Crowley laughed at his angel's awkwardness. "Planning to give it a few thousand years, then?" He gave the shoulder he held a squeeze.

Aziraphale huffed. "I see no point in rushing anything," he half-muttered. 

Crowley grinned into the blonde locks at his shoulder and teased, "Never one to go too fast."

Aziraphale flushed and ducked away from the heckling demon. He was beginning to regret mentioning anything about his current predicament. "Will you come off it! No one's going too fast! Or too slow! Or anywhere at all!" he spluttered with a glare.

Crowley shifted around to rest his weight against the control panel again. He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms. " 'M sorry, angel. Didn't mean to upset you," he murmured questioningly.

The angel returned to the wheel, which he held onto like an anchor. He couldn't look directly at the demon, so he focused his gaze out over the darkened horizon. "Just leave it. Forget I brought it up."

Crowley's mouth set into a frown. "Oh, don't be that way!" 

The angel rolled his eyes and remained rigidly aloof.

"Why did you bring it up to begin with if you don't want to talk about it?" Crowley irritably pressed.

"Because you should know about it whenever I become close with someone!" the agitated angel fired back. He thought for a moment and added, "Now that we can talk about… such things."

Crowley swallowed and turned towards his angel, remaining silent.

"I thought if anyone would understand, you would," Aziraphale sniffed, glancing at the golden eyes to his right. "And anyway… What business would I have making the first move?"

The demon chuckled and moved behind the angel to carefully wrap him in a hug. He was relieved when Aziraphale sighed scornfully but relaxed against him. "Angel, take it from me… Gabriel doesn't make the first move."

The blush on the back of Aziraphale's neck was striking against his platinum hair. He allowed his curiosity to overcome his defensiveness. "What do you suggest, then?" he asked.

"Well, I can tell you what worked eons ago," Crowley said with a smile as he began to tell a very old story.

At that moment, both members of the bridge crew were too preoccupied to notice that the Ziz's blip on the monitor had disappeared.

* * * * *

Howard was backlit by morning sun rays as he indignantly paced the wheelhouse, glaring and throwing scathing commentary at Crowley. "I trusted you, sir! My reputation as an explorer has never been tarnished! Never! When Howard Moon sets his sights on a target, he reaches that target! Now... Now where did the bloody target go?"

The demon tossed his head and muttered, "This is the last time I do you a favor, _sir_ , and the last time I checked, all explorers have to sleep sometime!"

The man in the footed tweed jumpsuit reared back. "Everyone, did you hear that?! That was a threat! Mark my words, if anything happens to me, all of England will be after you!" he shouted, pointing at the slouching figure in sunglasses.

Vince, wearing pyjamas printed all over with the Rolling Stones logo, was lazily munching on toast at the table. He called out, "Howard, relax! He only meant that you wouldn't have been able to watch the monitor while you were sleeping."

"Well, what could have happened to it?" Anathema asked the group.

Newt leaned forward and adjusted his glasses. "I highly doubt it was a technical failure. I mean, for one, I was very careful not to touch the beacon. For another, we tested and retested the three fail-safe backup batteries. We burned it, smashed it, dunked it... It should be fine!"

"But what about the monitor? What if he dropped it?!" Howard jabbed a finger at the demon again.

"No one's dropped it, Howard!" Vince said in exasperation.

"You can't prove that! I demand an inquiry!" Howard was escalating from ranting to raving.

Vince handed the frothing fellow a stack of glossy photos. "Here, look at your kitten pictures."

Newt and Anathema shared an identical amazed expression as Howard's tension seemed to melt away and his eyes glazed over.

Gabriel spoke to the group, "We might not figure out what went wrong, but we do need a plan. I can't send Michael a report that features a missing Ziz."

"Well, you could write a report that... speaks around that issue," Aziraphale carefully suggested.

"You wouldn't have any experience with that, would you?" the Heavenly administrator queried.

The principality stuttered, and Crowley angrily cut in, "Gabriel! You'd have to be a fool to take every report you read as 'gospel!' You invented half the white-washing techniques used at Downing Street!"

"Stand down; he can speak for himself," Gabriel quipped, motioning toward the other angel. "And you're right; I just wanted input."

Aziraphale relaxed and smiled. "Oh. Right," he responded.

The two angels moved to depart for the canteen to work on a report. "Keep working on tracking that bird!" Gabriel called over his shoulder.

Crowley stared after them until Newt began reviewing facts. "We left port yesterday tracking the Ziz southwest. Her path didn't change much. And then we lost her around 12 hours later."

"Shall we see if Naboo found anything about a giant invisible bird in the news?" Anathema suggested as she placed the miniature crystal ball on the table. The witch found that the ball responded favorably when moved near the ship's long-wave antenna, and the shaman's face was soon compressed within the glowing orb.

"What do you mean you lost her?!" the tiny man demanded once updated. "Bollo, light the stripe-flame candle; send the SOS to the High Council! I don't believe this!"

Naboo's face looked downward in the glass and he was silent.

"Is he consulting the spirits?" Newt asked somberly.

"No, I'm on Google, you burke!" the bulbous face snapped. After a moment he added, "No, no reports of anything like an invisible Ziz sighting. But the stories about people going mad and turning aggressive just keep coming, you have to do something!"

As it stood, Naboo was correct. The incidents of extreme savagery were indeed on the rise, and reports were rolling in from all over the globe with details too disturbing to relate here. Canada had initiated a wall project, being the last nation on Earth where people were behaving normally. At least 'normally' as compared with everywhere else. The Canadians had stopped being polite and some were even rather cross.

"We'll carry on from here. You just let us know if you get anything useful," Crowley directed, dropping the crystal ball back into Anathema's pocket. 

The crew who were present voted, not quite unanimously, to stay their current course following their quarry's last observed path. Howard was the only nay-sayer, having thrown his kitten photos down to passionately argue for a trip to shore to get monitor repair parts. Ultimately, the pair of explorers were able to agree to share wheel duty while Newt and Anathema deployed a teamwork approach to troubleshoot the monitor. Crowley rubbed his eyes and slunk away to find a dark cabin with a soft bed in which to get some much-needed rest.

Five hours later, Anathema's boots rang out rapidly as she rushed toward the canteen door. She burst in, finding the two angels hard at work with a pair of decadent lattes between them. Aziraphale dropped her reading glasses, and quickly shoved her hair behind her ear to see what was the matter. Or had she been wiping whipped cream from her earlobe?

"We need help upstairs!" the breathless witch shouted.

The pair of angels flashed into the wheelhouse, where they found Howard prowling in front of Newt and Vince, who had their backs to the control panel. The former was wielding a chair as a shield while the latter was swinging the ship's radio handset in front of him like a drunken propeller.

As if sensing their presence behind him, Howard whirled around with a snarl and lunged at the angels. With a wave of Aziraphale's hand, Howard's sleeves began to grow in length. The wild man tripped over his traitorous garment, falling to his knees while his sleeves wrapped themselves around and around his waist, straitjacket style.

Anathema rushed back onto the bridge just in time to see Gabriel levitate Howard and move him down the stairs, to be locked up securely.

"What brought that on?" the remaining angel asked the other wheelhouse crew.

"I'm clueless!" Vince answered, having propped himself against the wheel. "One minute we were talking about soup, the next he got a mad glint in his eye. If I hadn't ducked, he'd have jabbed me right in the eyes!" The rocker looked both affronted and shocked.

"This can only be the effect of the world-wide crisis," Aziraphale observed pensively.

"Well, yeah!" Vince agreed indignantly. "Howard's always been a bit squirrelly, but he's rubbish in a fight! I mean, apart from the time he laid out a kangaroo by crushing its bits, but I feel that only proves my point!"

"We can't go on like this, with people going mad one by one!" Newt panted. 

"We're on an intercept path with the Ziz's flight line?" Aziraphale questioned.

"Yes, ma'am, we're rounding Africa and preparing to pick up her line in the Gulf of Guinea," Vince responded.

"Then, we need to hurry!" the woman in tartan pressed as she added an angelic boost to the ship's already alarming speed.

One should note that the last time a boat had moved that quickly, the ineffable pair had opted to co-pilot a smuggling voyage for maple syrup and rum. 17th century sailors had observed the pair's ship skipping along the surface of the water from afar, and rumors of a terrifying "Flying Dutchman" had spread like plague.

The sky was dark and Anathema was at the wheel when she let loose a startled cry. Aziraphale raced to stand next to the witch and she gasped as she recognized the green glow she saw in the waters ahead.


End file.
